Violence, What Are It s Effects?

Children begin watching television at an early age, sometimes as early as six months. Children are most prone to being influenced by what they see when they are young. So the question arises as to how the content being viewed affects children at the younger stages of life? Some claim that television violence does not affect children in a negative way, yet others say that it plants ideas in children s head that could become destructive. Many arguments are focused on the amount of television that children watchand the volume of violence in the shows. There are more arguments saying that it does affect children than those saying it does not. While both arguments seem justified, it seems

that the argument stating that it does affect children has more backing to it

Children watch a lot of television. It is recorded that they watch over

2,400 hours a year (Kalin). By the time they are 18 years old, they will have seen approximately 7 years of television. With all this television watching they are sure to see some violence. It is also said that the violence is portrayed in the wrong way. The television rewards violence, justifies violence, and has numerous acts of violence. After a while children become immune to violence in real life. They also accept it as a way to solve things and eventually imitate what they see on television (Kalin). Once an idea is planted in a child s head, he will carry it into adulthood.

Some violence is more harmful than other types. Random violence is an example of this, as is realistic fictional violence. Both of these types make children believe that violence is not a serious issue. When children are young they think a lot of things are real. Most likely any child who thinks Santa Claus is real, will also believe that the things he sees on television is real (nctvv). If a child sees people on television getting away with violence, he will think he can also get away with it. Even if the child serves the consequences, someone will have gotten hurt. That is why it is wrong for young children to see people get away with violence on television.

Television violence today is worse than the television violence in the past. In 1960 there was barely any violence on television. If there was, it was normally a law enforcement officer fighting with someone who broke the law. There was practically no blood, and very minimal violence. Today, violence is a lot more graphic and realistic. Modern special effects make violence more graphic. This often makes children numb to the effects of violence, and will not shock them in real life. Children should not view violence as a trivial thing.

Although there is a television rating system, it does prevent children from watching violent programming. Many children do not have guidance while they watch television. They are free to watch whatever they want. Sometimes they watch very violent programs. Young children see 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence by the time they leave elementary school.(nctvv) I doubt that the parents of these children knew the graphic nature of these shows. If they did, they must not have known the effects of it.

Not all violence on television is bad. It can educate, and warn children about the effects of it. For example, a program on the Holocaust would be likely to show scenes of violence.(kalin) But it would show that is bad. It would also show what effects hate has. While it may give a child nightmares, they would not act out these images on the playground. They are likely to have anti hate views as they grow up, as they see the results on television.

Children bring what they see on television into real life. When they are not watching television they want to be. This is proved in many ways. In 1999 over half the toys bought were television related. This shows a strong relationship between what is on television and their life. On playgrounds, you can see young children acting out television shows that are popular. Many children are pretending to shoot each other and pretending to fight. Basically, they are acting out violence from the television. For now it is just pretend, but what happens when the line between reality and fantasy fades away?

In conclusion, children are affected by television violence. It may not be all bad. They can learn the consequences violence, and learn it is bad. On the other hand, they may imitate it. They could act out the Power Rangers on the playground, or pretend to shoot each other in the backyard. But, whatever way you look at it, television is huge influence, violent or not.